Thank you, Jasbir.
The major issue is the tariffs. The 14.5% duty restricts our ability to go inland economically. Right now, most of our lumber is going to a port city, whether it be Bombay or some other port. To go inland, it's another $900 to $1,200 U.S. for a container. If our duty could come down to zero, or close to zero, that would give us more access to inland cities and more access for our lumber at economical prices. That's a huge hurdle.
The other ones I've listed in my presentation are in regard to the bureaucracy and getting the lumber there. In other words, it deals with the different rules for different categories of lumber. Our lumber is in schedule VI and schedule VII of the import schedule. I'm questioning why we can't have it all under one schedule. One schedule requires no import restriction and the other one requires us to get an import permit. I'm asking why it is separated like that. There's no reason for it.
The other thing is, our SPF, southern yellow pine and all that, comes under three separate import permits. Our industry would like to see one import permit that covers SPF as it's marketed worldwide. Why not one import permit to cover that? Right now our buyers in India have to apply for three separate import permits, putting down the percentage of pine, the percentage of spruce, and the percentage of fir. This is really no issue, because you're just guessing at it. It's better to have one import permit for those species. Those are the things that I think should be addressed.